Thursday, May 8, 2008

It Seems to Me.....

By Alan Gable

that every man has at least one vice that continually beats the trash out of him. Once he becomes self aware enough to recognize it, he can then begin to try to conquer. However, he must exercise extreme caution because his pursuit of abolishing his one great flaw will leave him vulnerable to a multitude of corresponding demons.

Personal example: My great flaw is overindulgence. This mainly pertains to food, but can and does bleed over into other aspects of life. Increased discipline can pretty much control this habit, but this discipline (usually in the form of a restricted diet and exercise) usually gives way to anger (because my comfort mechanism is taken away), pride (because I think myself awesome for being able to slay the foe) and laziness (because my battle with gluttony becomes an excuse to neglect other things).

There are a few places in scripture that reference this principle saying that when a demon is cast out of a man, the place is swept clean. But when the demon returns, which he always does, he sees that there is room for 7 of his closest demon friends and the man is worse off now than in the beginning.

I think this may be a more subtle portion of man's share of "the curse". God talked about him working the ground by the sweat of his brow which would only produce fruit along with some painful thorns. Maybe the man's heart works in a similar way. The more he works to clear away all the junk, the more weed-like things will take root and just keep working him over.

May your fight produce good fruit, and may those thorns be small.

2 comments:

Steven Baird said...

I agree wholeheartedly. Thanks for sharing.

Tiffany said...

Great thoughts! Thanks for this, Alan.